Amos 9:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Amos 9:7
Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Ethiopians
כֻשִׁיִּ֨יםkhu.shi.Yim
H3569
a Cushite · noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
children
בְּנֵ֥יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
up
הֶעֱלֵ֙יתִי֙he.'e.Lei.ti
H5927
to ascend · verb, hiphil perfect, 1st person common singular
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
land
מֵאֶ֣רֶץme.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Egypt
מִצְרַ֔יִםmitz.Ra.yim
H4714
Mitsrajim · proper noun, a place name
Philistines
וּפְלִשְׁתִּיִּ֥יםu.fe.lish.ti.Yim
H6430
a Pelishtite or inhabitant of Pelesheth · conjunction + noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
Caphtor
מִכַּפְתּ֖וֹרmi.kaf.Tor
H3731
Caphtor (i.e. a wreath-shaped island) · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Syrians
וַאֲרָ֥םva.'a.Ram
H758
Aram or Syria · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
Kir
מִקִּֽירmi.Kir
H7024
Kir · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 47:4 Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD w…
Deuteronomy 2:23 And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their s…
2 Kings 16:9 And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it capt…
Jeremiah 9:25-26 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Amos 1:5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of…
Amos 2:10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
Isaiah 20:4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Amos 9:1-10
We have here the justice of God passing sentence upon a provoking people; and observe,
I. With what solemnity the sentence is passed. The prophet saw in vision the Lord standing upon the altar (Amo 9:1), the altar of burnt-offerings; for the Lord has a sacrifice, and multitudes must fall as victims to his justice. He is removed from the mercy-seat between the cherubim, and stands upon the altar, the judgment-seat, on which the fire of God used to fall, to devour the sacrifices. He stands upon the altar, to show that the ground of his controversy with this people was their profanation of his holy things; here he stands to avenge the quarrel of his altar, as also to signify that the sin of the…
unto me--however great ye seem to yourselves. Do not rely on past privileges, and on My having delivered you from Egypt, as if therefore I never would remove you from Canaan. I make no more account of you than of "the Ethiopian" (compare Jer 13:23). "Have not I (who) brought you out of Egypt," done as much for other peoples? For instance, did I not bring "the Philistines (see on Isa 14:29, &c.) from Caphtor (compare Deu 2:23; see on Jer 47:4), where they had been bond-servants, and the Syrians from Kir?" It is appropriate, that as the Syrians migrated into Syria from Kir (compare Note, see on Isa 22:6), so they should be carried back captive into the same land (see on Amo 1:15; Kg2 16:9), ju…
Children of the Ethiopians - Or Cushites. Cush was the son of Ham, Gen 10:6; and his descendants inhabited a part of Arabia Petraea and Arabia Felix. All this stock was universally despised. See Bochart.
The Philistines from Caphtor - The island of Crete, the people of which were the Cherethim. See, Sa1 30:14; Eze 25:16; Zep 2:5.
The Syrians from Kir? - Perhaps a city of the Medes, Isa 22:6. Aram, from whom Syria had its name, was the son of Shem, Gen 10:22. Part of his descendants settled in this city, and part in Aram Naharaim, "Syria of the two rivers," viz., Mesopotamia, included between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The meaning of the verse is this: Do not presume on my having brought y…
The Church Fathers
Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cappadocia, and the Syrians from Cyrene? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: yet will I not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. LXX: Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. As for Cyrene, Aquila and the fifth edition have put the Hebrew word itself, Cir (), and the Septuagint the pit, that is, βόθρον, Theodotion the wall, Symmachus Cyrene: whom we also followed in this place. I will conclude the understanding of this whole passage that I have proposed, and of all that is contained in this chapter, with a brief discourse, up to the point where it is written: Those who say, 'Evil will not come to us, and the sword will not come upon us,' so that we may know what is said: I am the Lord God Almighty, who cannot be hidden, who touches the earth and it quakes; who builds my ascension in heaven; who calls forth the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth; whose name is the Lord, who am the creator of all things: I fashioned all peoples from the same clay and generated them by an equal lot. Finally, I have brought together the Ethiopians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Jews, who are distant in location and body, under the law of mortality. I also exchange and move my slaves here and there at my own discretion, and transfer them to all provinces. Do not become proud because I led you out of Egypt and did not allow you, as my chosen people, to serve Pharaoh: I have done the same with the Palestinians, whom the Seventy foreigners transported, who are called Caphthorim in Hebrew, in order to transfer them from Cappadocia and settle them in the regions of Palestine. I also transferred the Syrians, that is, the Aramaeans, from Cyrene. From this, those who have become equal in status will be punished by the judgment of my equal justice, and I will overthrow all impious kingdoms without…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Caphtor — A chaplet, the original seat of the Philistines (Deut. 2:23; Jer. 47:4; Amos 9:7). The name is found written in hieroglyphics in the temple of Kom Ombos in Upper Egypt. But the exact situation of…
Caphtor, Caphtorim — (a crown), thrice mentioned as the primitive seat of the Philistines, (2:23; Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7) who are once called Caphtorim . (2:23) Supposed to be in Egypt, or near to it in Africa.
Kir — A wall or fortress, a place to which Tiglath-pileser carried the Syrians captive after he had taken the city of Damascus (2 Kings 16:9; Amos 1:5; 9:7). Isaiah (22:6), who also was contemporary with…
Phenicia — (Acts 21:2) = Phenice (11:19; 15:3; R.V., Phoenicia), Gr. phoinix, “a palm”, the land of palm-trees; a strip of land of an average breadth of about 20 miles along the shores of the Mediterranean,…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Caphtorim · 47:4; — 47:4;
Kir · Prophecies concerning — Prophecies concerning
Philistines · General references — General references
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord,.... And therefore had no reason to think they should be delivered because they were the children of Israel, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; since they were no more to God than the children of the Ethiopians, having behaved like them; and were become as black as they through sin, and were idolaters like them; and so accustomed to sin, and hardened in it, that they could no more change their course and custom of sinning than the Ethiopian could change his skin, Jeremiah 13:23; The Ethiopians are represented by Diodorus Siculus (b) as very religious, that is, very idolatrous; and as the first that worshipped t…
Amos 9:7
7. Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
7. Annon sicut filii AEthiopum vos mihi, filii Israel, dicet Jehova? Annon Israel ascendere feci e terra AEgypti? Et Philistim ex Cappadocia? Et Syrios e Kir?
The Prophet shows here to the Israelites that their dignity would be no defense to them, as they expected. We have indeed seen in many places how foolish was the boasting of that people. Though they were more bound to God than other nations, they yet heedlessly boasted that they were a holy nation, as if indeed they had…
The Lord will pour out these floods upon sinful Israel, because it stands nearer to Him than the heathen do. Amo 9:7. "Are ye not like the sons of the Cushites to me, ye sons of Israel? is the saying of Jehovah. Have I not brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines out of Caphtor, and Aram out of Kir?" With these words the prophet tears away from the sinful nation the last support of its carnal security, namely, reliance upon its election as the nation of God, which the Lord has practically confirmed by leading Israel up out of Egypt. Their election as the people of Jehovah was unquestionably a pledge that the Lord would not cast off His people, or suffer them to be dest…
the Ethiopians (literally the Cushites): Cush (see Gen 10:6-7) was south of the Second Cataract of the Nile (cp. Isa 18:1) and was often linked with Egypt, its neighbor to the north. • Israel’s exodus out of Egypt is compared to two other ancient migrations: the Philistines from Crete (see also Jer 47:4) and the Arameans out of Kir (cp. Amos 1:5; 2 Kgs 16:9).
Rashi on Amos 9:7
Are you not like the children of the Cushites to Me—Why should I refrain from exacting retribution upon you since you do not return to Me? Have you not come from the sons of Noah like the other nations? Like the Cushites whom you resemble, as the matter is stated: (Jer. 13:22) “Will a Cushite change his skin…? So will you be able to improve.”
Did I not—Was it not out of My goodness, the beginning of My choosing you, My taking you out of the land of Egypt? Now what is that to Me? The Philistines, too, I took out of Caphtor in such a manner when the Caphtorites came upon the Avvites, as the matter is stated (Deut. 2:23) “And the Avvites who lived in open towns up to Gaza etc.” They vanquished…
